‘It has to be community driven’: Wichita officials talk about another sales tax vote

City officials appear to be interested in starting a conversation about a second sales tax election in Wichita after nearly 82% of voters rejected the first proposal last week.

“It has to be community driven,” City Council member Mike Hoheisel said during a retreat Friday.

The council discussion was open to the public but held away from City Hall at Century II and not streamed on the city’s YouTube channel.

Council members signaled, based on voter feedback, that they wanted to still be able to fund the homeless services endowment and the public safety improvements that totaled $375 million of the $850 million proposal.

“Two things would have passed. It would have been homeless and public safety,” council member J.V. Johnston said, referencing exit polling done by Wichita Documenters.

The original proposal also included funding for convention center improvements, property tax relief and a new performing arts center.

Council members directed the city manager to host a series of town halls in each district, and a citywide one at City Hall, by the end of May to gauge whether residents would be interested in another sales tax vote and what it should fund.

Any new sales tax vote likely wouldn’t take place until next year.

To get the sales tax question on the August primary ballot, the city would have to submit ballot language by May 2. Council members also said they weren’t interested in putting the sales tax question on the November ballot, as the Wichita school district is poised to put another school bond question on the ballot then.

A new state law then wouldn’t allow the city to put a sales tax vote on a ballot until March.

Wichita and Newton are the only cities in Kansas with a population over 15,000 that do not have a city sales tax. Voters in most of Wichita’s suburbs have approved 1% sales taxes. Sedgwick County has a 1% sales tax; Wichita received nearly $7 million from that in 2025.

Homeless shelter funding in Wichita

During the sales tax election, the city’s homeless shelter, Second Light, warned it would not have enough funding to continue operating later this year.

That’s because the city used federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to begin operating the shelter. Those federal dollars must be spent by fall.

Had the sales tax passed last week, the city would have allocated $150 million toward homeless services, including an endowment fund that would have gone toward the operations of the wraparound homeless shelter.

Council members also discussed Friday how, and if it should, put money toward the shelter to continue operating until the end of the year.

Most council members came to the consensus that the city could allocate $2 million for the shelter and ask the city’s private sector for matching funds.

The city’s funds could come from reserves or from a mill reallocation in the capital improvement program.

“I think we’ve invested too much money to let this thing die on the vine and not follow through with what it could potentially do,” Hoheisel said.

A final decision on where that funding would come from would occur during the city’s budget process this year.

The council has until the end of August to set the city’s budget for 2027.

The council also continued discussions about pressuring area municipalities to help pay for the homeless shelter.

Several council members made claims that some cities in the state were transporting their homeless residents to Wichita and dropping them off at the homeless shelter to use its services.

“Let’s call it out,” council member Dalton Glasscock said.